If it has an engine, it has a heart

Tag Archives: Pontiac

The Rockford Files, starring the late James Garner, ran from 1974 to 1980, causing much Firebird and beach trailer envy.

Rest in peace, Jimbo.

The world lost a great actor and – by all accounts – a hell of a good guy on July 14, as screen legend James Garner passed away at age 86.

Growing up, I thought Garner’s Jim Rockford character in The Rockford Files (1974-80) was just the coolest guy ever. I mean, he lived in a trailer on the beach, tussled with bad guys on a weekly basis, knew how to rock a polyester sport coat and slacks, and tooled around in a gold Firebird.

The perfect life! (minus the scrapes and bruising)

Oh yeah, and the theme song rocked…. but back to that Firebird for a minute:

Jim Rockford drove a Pontiac Firebird Esprit for the duration of the show, always in the same distinctive gold (Denver Poly Gold) that mingled well with the various brown and beige polyesters and vinyls of the era – the Landau Era.

I’ve always had a thing for the curvaceous 2nd generation Firebird/Camaro twins – one could spend many happy minutes just staring at that wraparound rear window and low-slung body. And, while Burt Reynolds made the Firebird Formula and Trans Ams a hot (and cheesy) commodity in the late 70s, I have to applaud Garner’s choice of the Esprit model for his low-rent private eye character, as it provided some flash and class to go with the car’s respectable dash.

Jim Rockford races to the rescue (or the bar) in his trusty Pontiac Firebird Esprit.

A guy like Rockford liked the appearance of luxury and of getting the most out of his hard-earned paycheque, so the Esprit seemed like a natural fit for him. A decent (not base) engine, upgraded interior trim, and a five-spoke sport rim/low-profile whitewall combination was a good compromise for a guy who couldn’t snare maid service for his trailer home/office.

The Esprit engine for the first chunk of the decade was the revered small-block 350 Chevy V-8. Starting in 1977, however, the trustworthy-but-unglamorous Buick 231 V-6 became the standard engine in base models as well as the Esprit.

Never fear – higher-output engines were just a tick of the option box away.

The series ran until 1980, but TV viewers will notice that that final makeover of the 2nd-generation Firebirds – the 1979-1981 model – never made it into Rockford’s sand driveway. There’s a simple reason why the show’s producers capped it at the ’78 model year – car aficionado Garner didn’t dig the front ends on those later rides, and likely didn’t approve of the performance either (the Pontiac 265 and 301-cubic inch V-8’s are rarely spoken of in rapturous tones).

And so, a ’78 model carried the show and its protagonist till the dawn of the glorious 1980s (the final episode aired January 10, 1980). Had the series stayed on, Rockford might have been forced to chase/escape baddies in an Iron Duke-powered 3rd generation Firebird (not a sexy or successful-sounding prospect).

The Final Facelift. James Garner wasn’t too enamored by the front end treatment given to the 1979-81 Firebirds. (image: Bull-Doser, Wikimedia Commons)

The Rockford Firebird is now something of a cultural icon, which goes to show the impact the popular series had on the collective American psyche. Here’s an interesting link that details one man’s quest to make himself a Rockford Firebird, thus (hopefully) cementing his image as the king of affable, laid-back cool.

The glaciers have slowly receded following a winter that resembled something from a Roland Emmerich eco-disaster film, exposing formerly icebound treasures to the lukewarm spring sunshine.

Such bounty, too! Not just old coffee cups, but also mud, no-longer-frozen dog feces, more mud (I think), and the shovel that went missing after New Year’s.

However, on the roads – potholed and cracked as they are – the capital’s weary motorists are thumbing their nose at winter by (cautiously) getting their summer rides out. Last week I rounded the corner near my house to find a red, first-generation Pontiac Fiero parked at the curb.

This also would have been noteworthy in July – I mean, who still has one of these 80s relics?

The encounter sparked hazy childhood memories for me – especially the recollection of my mother forbidding me from going for a spin in my cousin’s Fiero, which I thought was second only to a Mustang for awesomeness. The reason had something to do with safety – the phrase death trap was tossed about quite a bit that day.

The 1984-88 Pontiac Fiero (Spanish for ‘fierce’, and ‘ferocious’) was far tamer than most drivers would have liked, despite its radical two-seat/mid-engine layout. The reason for this was GM’s need to make do with off-the-shelf suspension and drivetrain parts that formed the basis of such pulse-pounders as the Pontiac Phoenix and Chevrolet Celebrity – not to mention the pavement-scorching Chevette.

Not quite a Fiero: still, these Chevettes had more than a few parts in common with their two-seater stable mate.

Nothing spells performance quite like the heavy, horsepower-deficient Iron Duke, which, because of tight quarters in the engine compartment, was saddled with a shrunken oil pan that perpetually ran a quart low.

In an attempt to squeeze more juice out of this lemon, drivers often revved the Iron Duke too high, leading to widespread breakdowns. Media reports of engine fires served to saddle the car with a stigma that lasted, and GM tossed the hot potato before the 80s were finished.

In the end, models with the 2.8-litre V-6 and 5-speed manual were the closest the Fiero came to matching its own high-performance looks. I have to image the little wedge I saw parked around the corner had a V-6 stuffed behind the seats, as I can’t image anyone bothering to keep an Iron Duke on the road in this economy – even for the irony factor.